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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

nimble.

Adept at taking or grasping.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈnɪmbəl/[ˈnɪmbəl] ~ [ˈnɪmbl̩]
  1. Adept at taking or grasping.

    nimble fingers
  2. Quick and light in movement or action.

    He was too nimble for the assailant and easily escaped his grasp.
  3. Quickwitted and alert.

    He has a nimble mind and can improvise in any situation.
Where this word comes from

With intrusive -b-, inherited from Middle English nymyl, nemel, nemyll, nymell (“agile, quick, ready, able, capable”), a merger of Old English nǣmel (“receptive, quick to grasp”) and Old English numol (“able to take, capable of holding”), both from niman (“to take”) + -el, -ol (associative suffix), corresponding to nim + -le. Compare German nehmen, Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (niman), Old Norse nema (“to take”). More at nim.

verb/ˈnɪmbəl/[ˈnɪmbəl] ~ [ˈnɪmbl̩]
  1. To move nimbly.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

With intrusive -b-, inherited from Middle English nymyl, nemel, nemyll, nymell (“agile, quick, ready, able, capable”), a merger of Old English nǣmel (“receptive, quick to grasp”) and Old English numol (“able to take, capable of holding”), both from niman (“to take”) + -el, -ol (associative suffix), corresponding to nim + -le. Compare German nehmen, Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (niman), Old Norse nema (“to take”). More at nim.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.